trafficSTL

Overview

This Python script uses Google Maps Directions API to fetch real-time estimated travel times between various origin-destination pairs. The script reads these pairs from a CSV file (locations.csv) and writes the travel time information to another CSV file (travel_time_data.csv). The collected data is appended to the CSV file every three minutes, providing a time-series of travel times.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.x
• Google Maps Directions API key
• requests library

To install the requests library, run:

pip install requests

Configuration

API Key

Save your Google Maps API key in a config.json file as follows:

{
  "API_KEY": "YOUR_GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY_HERE"
}

.gitignore

To keep sensitive information like your API key secure, create a .gitignore file in the root directory of your project and add the following:

# .gitignore

# Ignore configuration files
config.json

Usage

Run the Python script:

python main.py

The script will:

1. Read origin-destination pairs from locations.csv.
2. Fetch real-time travel times for each pair.
3. Append this data to travel_time_data.csv.

Output

Current estimated travel time from 38.608157, -90.212793 to  38.503658, -90.338531: 13 mins
Current estimated travel time from  38.503658, -90.338531 to 38.608157, -90.212793: 20 mins
Current estimated travel time from 38.645402767911236, -90.19038008948353 to 38.73941750302947, -90.36711780510736: 16 mins
Current estimated travel time from 38.73941750302947, -90.36711780510736 to 38.645402767911236, -90.19038008948353: 13 mins
Current estimated travel time from 38.50704992855341, -90.34868169228166 to 38.69506236867715, -90.45064444421797: 18 mins
Current estimated travel time from 38.69506236867715, -90.45064444421797 to 38.50704992855341, -90.34868169228166: 18 mins
Current estimated travel time from 38.619117861748094, -90.18701619928001 to 38.62974944872341, -90.34160510195098: 12 mins
Current estimated travel time from 38.62974944872341, -90.34160510195098 to 38.619117861748094, -90.18701619928001: 8 mins
Current estimated travel time from 38.64272364200376, -90.1884845499635 to 38.55058291280976, -90.42464789236925: 25 mins
Current estimated travel time from 38.55058291280976, -90.42464789236925 to 38.64272364200376, -90.1884845499635: 17 mins